Dawgs Abroad: The Netherlands

The latest installment in the Dawgs Abroad series comes from Hunkering Hank who talks about being a kid overseas in the early 80s as a Dawg fan.

When I was a kid my Dad was in the Air Force. We were stationed in the southern portion of The Netherlands at a base called AFCENT when I was between 9 and 12 years old.

We were lucky enough to get BBC and a few Dutch and German channels on TV. We basically got the A-Team on Monday nights, and that was it. So, needless to say, we played outside a lot.

[Image: If you're going to have limited TV options, starting with the A-team ain't half bad]

My dad played basketball at UGA from 1964-66 and is a huge Georgia fan, as am I and my mom who went to UGA too. I got my undergrad and law degrees from UGA. My brother, the dumbass, went to the clown school.

Anyway, my dad decided one year that, by God, we were gonna see Georgia play its bowl game if at all possible (now I'll be danged if I can remember whether it was the 84 Cotton, 84 Citrus or 85 Sun - I think it was the Sun).


PWD Note: It makes a better story as the Cotton Bowl

So we drove to Bitburg, Germany to Bitburg Air Force Base, spent the night in the visiting officers quarters (all in one room as I recall) and stayed up all night waiting on the Georgia game.

We watched every game the Armed Forces Network ran that night and had a hell of a time. I'll never forget being crammed into that little room with my family and we were all exhausted, and, being a little kid of about 10 years old, I was just fighting like hell to stay awake for the Georgia game.

I couldn't make it and passed out at who knows how late, and my Dad woke me up screaming "GO ON BOY!!!" Which is what he screams whenever a Georgia player (ala Garrison Hearst at Auburn in 1992) breaks free (at all) and ought to score.

My Mom was out and my brother was fading fast, but I rallied and the real DAWGS in the family, me and my Dad, stayed up and watched until the end.

That was about the only pure Georgia trip we took, overseas, to see something UGA related. Of course, we made other great trips in the U.S. as a family to see the Dawgs play - like at Auburn in 1982 when I was 9.

Other stuff we did in Europe in the 1980's was fly Georgia flags on our house in the Netherlands. We would wear Georgia stuff everywhere we went, and we gave a Georgia rug (with a big bulldog head on it) to the local youth soccer club in the village of Schinveld, The Netherlands. They hung it on the wall, and I'm sure it's still up there.

Hope I added to your story.

Thanks Hank!

PWD

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